LAS VEGAS – John McAfee, a pioneer of antivirus software, made a surprise appearance at a hacker conference here to warn that smartphone apps spy on consumers.

He also mentioned death threats from people in Belize, smoking marijuana while listening to a Bible recording, the age of consent and the popular computer program that, until recently, bore his name.

Such is life through the eyes of McAfee, best known recently for misadventures abroad, including escaping from Belize after his neighbor was found dead. Belize officials called him a person of interest in the 2012 incident. He fled to Guatemala, then faked a heart attack to win deportation to the U.S.

“I may ramble a little about funny things,” McAfee said in a hotel ballroom at the Def Con conference, where he said he had come to talk about privacy. “The most interesting thing that happened to me is Intel, for reasons unbeknownst to me, decided to drop my name from its products.”

Intel bought McAfee Inc. in 2010 for more than $7 billion. This year, after McAfee himself said he no longer used the product, the chip giant said it would rebrand the unit “Intel Security.” Intel executives said they knew of McAfee’s exploits but denied the name change was related.

On the subjects of privacy and security, McAfee said smartphones are spying on American consumers, who don’t bother to read user agreements. “The most promising privacy thing is stupid phones,” he said. “I’m dumping all my smart phones.”

He said he had started brownlist.com, to collect complaints against large corporations. He also said he has an app for Android phones that tracks privacy permissions for various apps.

But in room full of hackers, every piece of software is suspect.

One attendee asked if he could download Mr. McAfee’s app without downloading the Google Play Store, which the questioner said he doesn’t trust on his phone. McAfee was unsure of the answer.